Carbon Nanofibers (CNF) for enhanced solder-based nano-scale integration and on-chip interconnect solutions

While the density of chip-to-chip and chip-to-package component interconnections increases and their size decreases the ease of manufacture and the interconnection reliability are being dangerously reduced. This paper introduces the use of Carbon Nanofibers (CNF) grown on chip as an embedded reinforcing material for nano-solder interconnections and as bonding material (adhesive) for chip-to-package solutions. Interconnections are realized by means of microbumps which can be less than 10 um in diameter and up to 20 um high. Such micro-bumps are shown to be solderable using conventional thermal-compression and micro-bumps. Using CNF embedded in polymer is shown to provide a robust solution for chip-to-package interconnections.